15 Kingdoms

War is just the beginning

"I Can't Believe That WORKED!"

After finding out that Druma had been sold into slavery to pay off her father’s debts, we were fairly motivated to find her and return her to her mother. We set off toward Longthuse’s keep, which we knew was just outside the city limits. As we approached, it appeared to be surrounded by some type of magical fence. Of course, I have no idea what it was, but Xiri seemed to think the posts marking the barrier were some kind of Conjuring Spell, so we weren’t too keen to attempt to sneak through the fence.

I suggested we pretend to be a wandering band of musicians come to entertain the master of the keep, to convince the guards to let us in, but unfortunately I only have two lutes, so we’d make a pretty poor showing of a traveling band of musicians.. Bemnar suggested that we pretend to be seeking sponsorship for his King’s Cup winning ale (of course he did) from the gladiator trainer, and everyone seemed to think this was a good plan. AJ managed to impress the idiotic guards enough to send one for his master; he seemed to say a word to get through the magical barrier before he left.

While we waited (and Bemnar small-talked the remaining guard), I searched out a local prairie dog family and communed with them; they were able to tell me that the magical ward summoned large monsters, the password to get through was a long list of Longthuse’s titles (which we had no hope of knowing), and that there were scary scaly creatures inside the keep that kept the woodland creatures from venturing too far into the yard.

As luck would have it, our falsehood convinced Longthuse, and the guard returned to invite us in. We entered one of the gaudiest homes I have ever seen to see Longthuse, his wife (my, she had some pretty creatures aside her seat!), and a variety of fighters making merry. As luck would have it, the girl we sought was right in the mead hall, next to the master’s wife. Shortly after we entered, though, she disappeared into a side room, much to our dismay.

Bemnar sweet-talked the master and offered him some ale, and the master responded pleasantly and invited us to stay. While Bemnar pulled up a chair aside Longthuse, I drew nearer the mistress of the house and inquired about the creatures she had tethered; it turns out they were guard drakes, of which I was previously unaware. She taught me much about the creatures; I’ll have to study them further when I get the chance.

Jalana and Xiri spoke to some of the fighters, to varying degrees of success. AJ wandered off on his own for a while but returned after a short while. As luck would have it, Druma ran into the room and brought a flask of brandy to the mistress while I spoke to her. After a moment, I asked if we might stay the evening, and the mistress sent Druma to make up rooms for us. I thought I saw her pause for a moment in the middle of the room before she disappeared into another door.

The party took our opportunity to follow the girl (while Bemnar remained to ply the master with more ale). Once in our room, we isolated Druma (Xiri pretended to have a problem with the pillows, which I thought was clever). After explaining that we were there to save her, we sent her to wait for our signal to leave. She left, and we began plotting how to get her out of the castle.

I remembered something the mistress had said about the keep being raided by Dragonborn, and I suggested we make the escape look like another Dragonborn raid. AJ sent a message to the girl asking her to bring us a large amount of meat, and miraculously she was able to slip away and do so. The others escaped after I turned Druma invisible so she could ride on Jalana’s back, and I gave Jalana some extra speed so she could get back as fast as possible. I tossed the meat to the drakes, who were now guarding the courtyard in front of the keep. Unsurprisingly, they went after the meat and were sufficiently distracted. AJ lit a few of the buildings on fire and Xiri fired arrows into and at the door of the keep. Bemnar placed kir-gothi armor around the outside of the keep to make it appear as though the Dragonborn had been the cause of the damage.

As AJ slipped out of the keep, I watched the fire spread to the barracks of the fighters, who ran out in their sleeping clothes. The drakes, unsurprisingly, turned on the vulnerable men. Not wanting an entire slaughter, I went to alert the master of the house. He rushed out to the balcony. I suddenly got the idea to deflect suspicion; I told the woman of the house we couldn’t afford to be in an attack because Bemnar had a brewery competition coming up; I think she believed me, but I didn’t stick around to find out; I bolted out the door and made for the hotel.

Once we all arrived safely, AJ went to retrieve Druma’s mother, and we sent the two of them off with some gold and a horse. Hopefully they’ll make it to Redbridge safely where they can start a new life safe from Druma’s father. Now…to find the materials to create a guard drake….

Dick Moves

Previously at the 15 kingdoms:

Our heroes wake up from defeating necrodickface I mean the necromancer and are cheered by the red bridge towns folk. Our heroes have some shaky memories of a different out come happening but in the end that questioning feeling goes away and all the heroes feel/know for a fact is that they won!

Back in town Talia and Jalana speak to each other about the books/scrolls found at the necromancers hide out and together decipher what everything means. Together they discover that the necromancer was forced to join the forces of super duper bad and becomes a super duper bad guy – he killed his wife as an initiation (told you he was a dick). Jalana shares this information with the rest of the heroes and together everyone agrees that the necromancer was a huge dick and deserved what he got.

AJ talked to Lady Kristen about how Zarrik Bane (a knight of Sardonia) was a major dick himself and killed Satya – super dick move. Lady Kristen didn’t know this and lost her cool for a little bit outside. The whole town could feel the ground shake. AJ watched Rask calm Lady Kristen down to at least having the ground stop shaking. Xiri finds out from the town’s folk that the knights of Sardonia don’t like anyone not human and so didn’t help anyone not human – a whole group of dicks.

Bemnar speaks with Fedrik (a bartender at the Guilded Sheep) and tells Bemnar that Bem’s ale has been chosen to be in the Kings Cup – a yearly competition for what ale the king will drink at this competition. Bem won! Not a dick thing, but not cool to enter Bemnar’s ale without telling Bem.

Fanny takes a day to go to the forest and relax. Fanny goes and finds the kobolds to make sure they are okay. She doesn’t tell anyone about this. Meepo (good ole Meepo) and a couple of females speak to fanny cautiously. Fanny makes sure to warn Meepo and his people to say where they are and if they need something to talk to her. Totally not a dick move, totally awesome move.

This whole time since the heroes have been back in the town fanny has been asking Rask and other random people about the suitcase that was previously left by Amadeus. No one has any answers for her. Fanny is frustrated by no one knowing and grumbles to herself about liking animals much better than humans. While she falls asleep that night grumbling to herself, Fans critter sense tingle and she wakes up. An animal of some sort has something shiny and climbs into the suitcase and disappears in the suitcase. Fan opens the suitcase and finds that she can climb in. Fan climbs in the suitcase and find that there are a couple rooms and the animal has a little nest of many different things that are shiny. In another corner of one of the rooms is an egg from a creature that is not from the forest, some kind of magical animal. Fan asks the animal what it is and the animal says egg. Fan looks at the animal and gives it some toast. Fan climbs back out of the suitcase and shuts it and makes sure it locks. Fan decides the animal is not a dick just a cute little animal that likes to collect shiny stuff but is perplexed about the suitcase.

The Group meets up again at the Guilded Sheep or as Jalana accidentily writes in the note to Xiri in Halfing, “the Glided Sheep” (Jalana isn’t the best at Halfling – sorry Xiri). Talia states that she is going to travel to New Braddington to investigate the cult that necrodickface was part of. Our great heroes agree to go with and will leave the next morning. At breakfast that morning Fan opens the suitcase to show everyone what she saw and nothing shows except a bunch of random stuff. The rest of the heroes look at Fan and just say yeah it’s a bunch of weird stuff. Fan is confused and shuts the suitcase again. The group gathers their things and joins Talia and moves towards New Braddington.

On the way to the town our heroes see smoke and a group of humans, dwarfs and halflings. This group had been attacked – their stuff ruined and some killed – a bunch of raiding dicks – and pointed the way the raiders went. Oh the raiders were dressed like Kir-Goth (dicks). Our heroes chase the raider dicks down and decided to attach them. Jalana isn’t so stealthy and alerts the dick raiders of our heroes presence. Shit goes down. After a bunch of fighting and kicking the raider dicks butt (orcs and humans – Kir-Gothi are normally dragonborn- and a Noctroth) our heroes prevail. Thanks to Xiri for healing our heroes and thanks to Fan for bringing AJ out of death saving throws. Our heroes loot the bodies and get a bunch of weapons/healing potions/armor from the raider dick faces. The Noctroth’s weapon is newly made – not good, they should all be old – bunch of dicks!

Our heroes go back to the road and travel the rest of the way with Talia to New Braddington.

The Fate of Redbridge

Time. It’s a tricky thing. A rather clever man… or perhaps it was a woman… said that time is not actually linear like most people think. Instead it’s more of a ‘wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey’ ball of… well, stuff.

Whatever the case, I was rather taken aback when my little party of adventurers came practically falling out of the front doors of Redbridge’s temple, beaten and half-dead.

For reasons I won’t go into here, I immediately knew it wasn’t right. It COULDN’T be right.

Trust me, it takes a lot to surprise me. But this certainly made me pause, if only for second. “This…I… don’t understand…This is not how it is supposed to happen. “

Now, I have a lot of options at my disposal. Some, many in fact, are rather dangerous. That’s what you get when you’re dealing with the very fabric of the multiverse. But just this once, I knew it had to be done. I shook away whatever troubled thoughts my eyes betrayed.

“No! No, it can NOT end this way. It has already happened! They MUST defeat him!”

Resolute, I stepped forward and gestured in a wide arch, casting a spell no one should.

And Everything. Goes. Dark.
…
…
…

When their vision returns, they likely have no idea how much time has passed. Things will feel the same, yet… different at the same time. Fleeting memories they know happened fighting with alternate versions trying to push those images out, both personal memories as well as history not match up as it once did. It’s not pleasant for the uninitiated, enough to make one vomit.

Then it will be gone. The world will come back into focus, and they will find themselves still in the town square. Bemnar’s axe has just sliced through the incorporeal form of that poor ghostly woman. She’ll scream and dissipate. Fanny will climb to her feet, the ghost’s scream still ringing in her ears. They will all turn towards the large oak doors of the Temple just in time to see two ghouls enter and disappear into darkness. That’s when it will hit them: they have been here before. They know that Kulag is in there. And they will be unable to resist the pull as they move towards the doors and enter.

Once again, the ghouls prove no issue.

They enter the cathedral’s sanctuary and feel the sensation that this is both the first time they have done so, but also that they have done this exact thing just a short time ago.

The necromancer, Kulag, stands on the raised dais at the far end, his back to them, chanting in a language none of them can hope to understand and is almost… painful to hear.

As they enter, Kulag stops speaking and looks back over his shoulder, and insane grin on his face.

“Come to give your flesh to the dark messiah? Yes, Yes! Much better to give it now. He will devour it soon anyhow.. “

The adventurers will attack, but this time they will have just a bit more knowledge of what is to come. The Blade Barrier appears, but they avoid it. They close in on the necromancer sooner than they did in their previous foggy memory. He summons an ally, an enormous Dire Bat, but our merry band is relentless this time around. Kulag puts up a fight, but there is no room for his arrogance this time.

The shock in his eyes fades into disappointment when the final blow lands. He will die with the knowledge that his dark messiah was not there to save him.

Vignette #6: The Aftermath

You exit the temple, exhausted and wounded, but alive. The last vestiges of the battle sound in the distance, just as the morning sun chases away the darkness of night. Soldiers and citizens, many you recognize, gather about. You see the druidess, Savara, walking through the square. The extraordinarily rare sight of her in town draws stares of wonder from the townsfolk. She ignores the looks though, and spots Anders Moonshade, the well known town scoundrel. The Elf druidess walks quickly to the bloody and battered half-elf and pulls him into a tight embrace. At the same time, you follow her gaze to see Rask standing on the far side of the square. They seem to share a bittersweet smile before Rask turns back to deal with the aftermath of the battle.

All around the town takes in the end results of the battle. Soldiers gather bodies of the fallen, both citizens and undead, while farmers carry buckets to put out the last of a building fire. You see Judge Valin solemnly covering the body of Satya with a white cloth. Nearby, the usually composed Lady Kristen cries uncontrollably into Sister Amara’s shoulder. Sheriff Blackwing walks through the square, ignoring the acolytes trying to tend his wounds, his axe ensuring that the dead stay that way.

That’s when you realize that a number of people are staring at all of you standing on the steps of the temple. Some point at you as they whisper to one another. Soon you all have the attention of a large crowd. A cheer rings out and quickly overtakes the assembly. The townsfolk shout over and over, calling you the heroes of Redbridge.

Far in the back, you see Amadeus leaning on his staff. Even from this distance, you meet his eyes and see the smile on his face before watching him fade out of existence and disappear.

Prepare for Battle

Our little messenger bird clearly served their purpose. As we descend upon the town, we see a force gathering in the town square. The good people are arming themselves for battle. Those that are a not ready for a fight a placing their cherished items in bundles.

We notice Lt. Zarrick Bane, local commander of the Knights of Sardonia, giving orders.
Armored soldiers on horseback are dispersed to fell trees. Barricades must be built to fend off the dead that approach. Rask tells the knights to leave. The knights command Rask to stand down. They will handle this abomination that approaches. Rask retorts that the members of this community will not be fodder for their protection. Our heroes decide to join the forces that gather to protect their homes.

A few hours pass as the sky grows black, nervous farmers and soldiers alike sweat under the looming threat. A piercing cry ruptures the night air. Humanoid forms appear surrounding the town. A decaying ogre charges toward the haphazard fortifications that were placed mere hours ago. Fan hurls a flask of holy water which crackles and sputters as it touches ogre flesh. The great creature moans and shudders under the blessed water. AJ sends magic missiles crashing into skeletons as they assault the town. The Ogres putrid flesh and blood receive an onslaught of sacred flame from Xiri.

Zombies and skeletons rush the townsfolk. Two are cut down immediately. Bem is struck by the clattering bones. The ogres rallies its senses brings its spiked log around crashing it into Jalana. Her wits leave her as the blunt force shakes her senses to the core. Bemnar’s self control breaks after witnessing his friend go down. He berzerks and cleaves his great axe into the hulking beast. All around the townsfolk hack and slash at fleshless skeletons. Bones riddle the ground at their feet. Smiles are exchanged as pride fills their hearts.

Fan readies her quarterstaff and strikes the ogre. Cracking bones resonate a ghoulish anthem that rallies the town. A firebolt explodes from AJ missing the ogre by inches. Xiri takes this moment to liberate Jalana from certain death. She casts a mending spell upon Jalana. Xiri grasps hold of her and drags her back as far as she dare. After all, there are still detestable brutes to dispatch.

The great beast, dripping blood from ragged wonnds, rips his club back at Bem. He slips beneath its lumbering swing. Skeletons lacerate Fan’s shoulder. Their feeble bones break and dislocate as they swing at Xiri. Jalana kicks powerlessly from a prone position at Xiri’s feet. Fan is filled with dread as she realizes that humans are animals and the undead come from darkness. More farmers are cut down as the skeletons advance.

Jalana pulls herself up and blasts a skeleton with her fist. The decaying bones explode. She races through the bone dust up to Bemnar’s back. Bem rears up and carves his great axe into the torso of the rotting ogre. Its innards spill onto the good earth. Cheering townsfolk can be heard at the back of the town as the skeleton’s ranks are depleted.

Fan whirls her quarterstaff at the ogre. AJ firebotlt the bulky mass of decomposing ogre. Xiri calls forth a sacred flame to burn the unholy beast. Sizzling chunks fall off the blundering burnt mess before them. Monsterous forms begin to take down soldiers. A ghoul lunges at Jalana with its poisonous claws. She recoils with fresh cuts. Fan slips from skeleton strikes unharmed. The zombie ogre slams into Bemnar with its great morning star. Jalana disengages from the ghoul and downs a healing potion. Bem strikes the ogre once again.

Judge Veylum smites the remaining forces with a great blast. Lady Christine destroys four zombies with a single spell. Fan thunderclaps the ground, shattering a skeleton to dust. The ogre looks stunned that it still draws will from the darkness. Aj releases firebolts into the ogre’s body once again. The smell is nearly overpowering. Xiri’s misses the ghoul as its claws scratch across her shield. Skeletons reach out for Xiri barely missing her. Jalana dashes in, and a skeleton explodes as the quarterstaff finds its mark. Nothing falls at her feet for she is already moving to her next target. The massive ogre smashes its morning star into the ground at Bem’s feet. Bem buries his axe into the ogre’s sternum. The ogre is no more. The brave townsfolk take down ghouls and skeletons alike as the tide abates.

Fan and AJ destroy skeletons with thuderclaps and magic missiles. The monstrous villains surround the town’s soldiers, Rask, and Christine. Puffs of bone dust burst as Jalana zips through the crowd. Fan and Xiri dance with a ghoul. Claws dash against the shield. Bem hacks at a zombie. A high level fireball detonates near Christine and Rask. It lays waste to the remaining evil forces.

Lights appear in the sky. Some become aware in time. Others meet death. Flaming arrows reign down. Xiri takes an arrow, skeletons around the group are struck as well. A ghastly laughter fills the air. A Flameskull destroys one of the centuries old buildings bringing it to rubble. Bem swallows a health potion. Everyone hurls their mightiest of armaments at the skull. Firebolts, javelins, foul language fly at the skull. It returns a fireball to the assembled defenders of the town. AJ is stuckdown.

Jalana magic missiles the skull and it collapses. The team breaths a sigh of relief. Xiri caresses AJ with the power of the light. He recovers his wits. AJ, Xiri, and Bem take healing pots. Fan casts a blade ward as more evil crawls out of the darkness. Another heavy-footed zombie ogre sullies the good earth that brings nourishment to the people. An anger fills the hearts of the defenders. This shade upon all that is good will not keep out the light. Xiri breaches the darkness with sacred flames. They all rally to her cry and rend the beast. As its will is broken and it falls to its knees, Bem uses his tankard to break the jaw from the beast’s head. It swivels to take someone, anyone with it back to the darkness from whence it came. Xiri brings her sacred flame to bear one last time. The beast’s head burns to ash.

Sister Amara comes to the aid of all that have suffered during the battle. Temple acolytes remove some of her burden. They walk among the suffering people. They bring peace to those that need it. They pour life-giving magics into those that hold on.

The adventurers make for the other side of town. They hear the cry of a soldier as a specter drains the life from his body. The band attacks the specter with magical blades, holy water, and thunderclaps. It dissipates under the assault. Adventurers hops fences, (Ferris Bueller-it), through town. A trio of ghouls attempts to eat a mother and her child cradled in her arms. They are cut down. Zombies amble into death as well. The mother thanks us and hands Jalana something.

Satiya destroys a ghoul as we approach. There is a multitude of corpses surrounding her. We see the knights near as well. They watch as the remaining ghoul mangles her body. Bane shoots the ghoul after it is done. We advance to find her dead. Her life-force given in protection of the people of this town.

We double back to the town square to find two ghouls entering the temple. A banshee attempts to stop us. We each use our talents to remove this horror from the temple’s entryway. The undead begin to flock to us. Amodius blasts the horde of undead from this world. And yet no one feels safe. An undead beholder floats from the sky. Amodius stands ready and orders us into the temple to end this. We barge into the temple. Two ghasts meet us. Xiri uses the power of the light to spread fear into what was left of their hearts. They run from her. We take one down as the other runs fearfully from the temple.

We walk cautiously, deeper into the temple. Aj casts a scorching ray as he spots the necrodickface. Jalana runs up and magic missiles him. He immediately cast a wall of whirling blades that splits the room in twain. Xiri screams to Jalana, telling her to run. Bem follows and Fan runs as well. AJ attempts to offer the necrodick a gem. He is denied.

Jalana fires another magic missile into the necrodick’s body. He responds by paralyzing Jalana. Bem bezerks and misses with a javelin. Xiri hits him with a crossbolt. The necrodickface casts a spell. A putrid, yellow/green cloud burns our eyes and obscures our view. Bem and Fan are taken down by the cloud of putrid gas. Xiri runs to attempt to drag her unconscious comrades to safety. Xiri heals Bemnar so that he may aid her. Bem attempts to grab Fan and feed her a potion. Fan is revived and runs for it. Necrodickface releases a dark spell that begins to remove all moisture from Bem’s body. He knocks out AJ and Xiri. Bem and Jalana attempt to take Xiri and AJ to safety. Xiri is struggling to stay and remove this evil from the world. Bem is taken down again. Xiri pulls Bem up and carries him out of the temple.

In the square, Xiri stabalizes Bem. Necrodickface fires at us once again. We run!!!!

Hopefully Home is Alright

After saving Talia, we took a breather in a side chamber of these ruins. Just long enough to feel better about how our day was going.
We entered the chamber that Talia had told us that this Kulag character had taken her to before, it wasn’t large, but semi-circular in design with some sort of bloody altar on the far side from the doors.
Standing by the altar must have been Kulag, but he wasn’t alone. There were a handful of skeletons and something that was like a fleshy skeleton…Xiri said it was probably a ghoul. The Kulag guy gave some speech about how Redbridge was going to pay, blah blah…I think he’s a little nuts, but whatever. He ran away through some hidden door behind the altar and the undead bum rushed us.
We had a pretty good defensive cluster at the doors, but Jalana decided to dart around the room after Xiri made most of the skeletons run from her. Jalana’s staff and fist took out a large chunk of the skeletons, leaving the ghoul for the rest of us to fight off.
After everything was dead…again…we checked out the room, but beyond the altar to Asmodeus, there wasn’t much there. We decided to give chase to Kulag and darted into the side room. This turned out to be his bedroom. He didn’t have a lot of stuff, but we pocketed a tome or two, something about a prince and some nameless one. It’s all a bit beyond apple orchards, but I’m sure someone knows something about it.
There’s another door leading out of the tiny room and we follow it to this huge cavern. It was kind of pretty in a creepy way, like most of the ruins have been. When we get in the cavern, we realize this is where Kulag left with his undead army…I said a few words I’m sure that Ma would wash my mouth out with soap if she had heard.
We left the cave and Fan convinced a little bird to carry a note for us to Mayor Rask to warn him of the attack. Then we went after the undead to try and make the army smaller, knowing we couldn’t stop them all on our own.
Maybe half an hour goes by and we were ambushed by a lot of undead, too much for us to handle, but suddenly the forest came alive to defend us. Ok, so it wasn’t really the forest. Turns out there’s a group of druids or elves or druid elves living in the forest west of home. Lady Savara Moonshade warned us about the army, and that she fears for Rask who has apparently been protecting them…which I’m really confused about. She calls down some giant eagles and tells us they will fly us back home to warn the mayor. Flying is cool, I wonder if I could do this without a big bird…not everyone is as keen on flying as I am though.
Next stop, home!
…hopefully it’s still there.

Entering the catacombs

The valiant heroes entered the temple of Asmodeus and there were paintings on the wall depicting the war of dragonborn and humans. There’s a summoning pentagram room but nothing else in the room. There is a chapel room with an odd smell of rotting animal. The chapel room has something on the ceiling – carrion crawlers. AJ Killed the carrion crawler with a firebolt. Fanny find a nest for the carrion crawler. A dead carrion crawler and a wand are in the nest. The rotten smell is the dead carrion crawler. Fanny harvests poison from the carrion crawler. Xiri takes the wand. After a short rest xiri identifies the wand as a wand of magic missile with 7 charges.
The adventurers continue on with more with more images of the war of the dragonborn and humans on the walls. There are stairs going down showing an image of asmodeus and the stairs are the teeth of the mouth. Looks very creepy. Fanny’s face when seeing this is outrageous/anger/outrage for the image. Fanny says ‘man this is creepy’. Bemnar has reservations about leaving the pentagon behind.
Stone doors at the bottom of the stairs there is a large room with arch ways. There are sculptures showing humans changing into tieflings. Carvings show asmodeus being gleeful. The room is a balcony the stairs go down to the floor/room. Small alcoves look like beds. The beds are sarcophagi. The lids of the sarcophagi are all pushed to the side and the sarcophagi are empty.
a room to the left is a catacombs. All the catacombs are empty. Tieflings are probably what was buried here. The room is empty the catacombs are empty. Main room has a minotaur skeleton. Minotaur skeleton has a great axe.
Jalana was given the magic missile wand before battle.
Mirror room on the other side of the main room. Empty of everything and has a catacombs. the opposite catacombs is damp and smells damp.
Moving forward in the underground the next room has tiefling skeletons. Dried blood on the ground. Dried blood about a week old. dried blood goes to a closed door. There is more in the room the other way.
Down the room there is a devil in the room. Devil takes less damage is resistant to many things. devil flies away and shoots needles from its tale at jalana and fanny.
Jalana speaks infernal to the devil and the devil says it’s a prisoner. Left the devil in the room and walked away. Devil was stuck in the room by a spell on the borders of the room.
Down the hall leaving the devil, the blood continues through another set of doors.
There are screams to the left of the hallway. Humanoid screams.
In the room – blood torture room. 2 ghouls are torturing a woman. The ghouls are eating the woman. There’s another woman in the corner crying.
Bemnar is attacked by the ghouls and was paralyzed for 1 minute. Jalana attacked the ghouls and killed them.
The woman chained to the wall was tortured. She’s the half-elf that was part of the adventure party from before.
Xiri makes sure the half-elf is not horribly injured. She has superficial injuries. The ears were cut the tips off and rounded. The tortured woman has many bites. Doesn’t have ghol fever the woman is freed by us.
The tortured woman is tahlya. She is weak superficial wounds but weak. Xiri questioned tahlya. AJ gives tahlya his water skin. Kulag is the man talia and her adventures were pursuing. Nocktroth cultist – Kulag.
Talia goes through the pile of stuff that is in the room and pulls out a holy symbol of Gabriel, she is a paladin of Gabriel.
Talia heals fanny/jalana/xiri.
Fanny experiments with the poison she found trying to put it on her weapons.
There is a breast plate in the pile of stuff in the room. Bemnar is putting on the breastplate.

We continued to search for the remaining prisoners. The next room we found was full of animals that had been caged by the kobolds—the scum!—for their nefarious purposes. A filthy kobold “inventor” was inside the room, holding a stick with a scorpion attached to it; weaponizing animals, the monster.

Immediately as we ran in, he tipped a barrel of snakes (a barrel of snakes! can you believe the cruelty!) onto the floor, and two of the poor, terrified creatures began approaching us. At the same time he dropped a box of spiders on the floor, and they swarmed towards us as well.

The group focused our attacks on the kobold; I convinced the group not to harm the snakes, but it’s hard to talk someone into protecting a rot grub that’s biting their leg. I began to calm the snakes, while Bemnar had the—ahem—bright idea to throw a box of wasps at the kobold. The wasps stung their master and then dispersed, likely joyful to be free. AJ had the brilliant idea to create a warm spot on the floor, using magic to draw the snakes to safety before they could hurt anyone. They seemed to be happy to curl up next to the warm spot until we could coax them back into the box for safety.

Once the kobold was unconscious I made sure to give it a few swift kicks as retribution for abusing animals.

Once we moved through, we found the kobold “king”, wearing a pair of wings fashioned from wood and leather, likely to convince the other dim creatures to follow him. He was protected by guards, and we fought them soundly. Despite the fact that he tried to bolt down a hallway as we started bloodying him up, Bemnar and I chased him down and saw to it that he would no longer command the kobolds (or make prisoners of humans) again. We rescued the villagers from the attached bedchamber and found a crude map suggesting a location in which we might find the necromancer who made the zombies.

We returned to town to receive our rewards; the townspeople had begun to gossip about our success and it was clear by the next day that we were considered “town heroes”. Many people offered us drinks and food, and the mayor offered us free lodging in his inn, though only a few of us took him up on it. We geared up in town, but before we left we had a strange encounter with a man named Amadeus von Urick…he pulled AJ aside before disappearing out the door with the mayor, seemingly leaving a case behind. Despite my reservations, the group brought the case outside to investigate it; Amadeus and Rask had already disappeared, so we couldn’t inquire further. Inside the case was an odd assortment of items: a steel gauntlet for the left hand, a children’s book named “The Adventures of Cedric Quickhands and His (Most Likely) imaginary companion Cecil”, a woman’s corset and lingerie, an abacus, a toy pipe that blows bubbles, a sketch of a goblin, a tribal blow gun of some sort, and a brass doorknob.

Wanting to know more, we decided to split up and see if we could find Rask, but he didn’t seem to be in the courthouse or in Lady Kristin’s tower. We left the case at the inn with a note to Rask, asking him to return the case to von Urick, and went on our way to the location indicated by the map.

When we arrived at the ruins at the bottom of the cliffs, we were surprised by reanimated Tiefling skeletons. We dispatched them quickly; our monk is swift and our cleric is mighty. We’re now about to enter an archway that apparently leads to a Tiefling temple. Xiri tells us that Tieflings were born of a great ware between humans and dragonborn, and that Tieflings are humans who made a deal with a god named Asmodeus, who is apparently the king of hell. I have a great fear about this place, but we must move on…

Into the Tunnels...

After Fan’s highly successful Sleep spell, we now have 3 kobolds to question. After much convincing, they let us know that they indeed have our villagers. They agree to let us take the villagers and go. For insurance, we gag them and knock them out so they can’t raise an alarm while we traverse deeper into the caverns.

We come to the next set of fortifications, a muddy ravine filled with junk. We move along quietly until Fan kicks some of the junk and the kobolds scatter. We face the remaining kobolds and take them down easily. Lucky for us, because they had a trap set and didn’t have time to set it off

The cave is dark, but Bemnar offers to lead the way. Farther down the path are 2 bridges above our heads. Bemnar tries to investigate, but the bridge snaps when he is nearing the top. His wounds from the fall are not unsubstantial. We decide that all of us being able to see is better than fumbling in the dark. It was a good thing, too, because we had just discovered another trip wire.

The ruckus and light drew in more kobolds. Fan discovered a neat trick of lassoing and pulling them down from the bridges, while the rest of us resigned ourselves to using our ranged weapons.

We come upon a ledge with a waterfall. On the top of the ledge are more kobolds, some of whom can fly. I never thought I’d see a flying kobold. It goes against nature! They too are taken down, though not as quickly as previous ones.

The cave is large, with many tunnels leading off of this central room. We pick a tunnel at random and go down it. It leads us to the nesting grounds, with many mothers, children and eggs. Promising to not hurt them, we are allowed to pass. The mothers direct us to our villagers.

We find a few of our villagers in a prison cell. Most are there, unharmed, but they have taken some of the children. We escort the villagers to the guard tower, knowing they can make it back to town unscathed.

We continue to explore the cave, searching for our missing children. We stumble across an interrogation in progress. A tiny kobold is torturing a large, undead ogre. The poor thing is not making much progress, as this undead was constructed for his brawn, not brains. As we watch, the bindings snap. We surround the ogre and fight valiantly, crushing it beneath our might. See footnote

The kobold is actually more intelligent than we give him credit for. He knows Common, and can answer some of our questions. Meepo (that is his name) tells us that their leader, Flametongue, has taken our villagers because he believes that the problems that befell his tribe stem from our town. Obviously that isn’t true. But there seems to be a magician of some sort controlling minds and making undead constructs in the ruins near the Kirgoth Plateau. We ask a few more questions, and then let Meepo go.

Time to rest up and continue our quest for the rest of our villagers.

*Footnote: ask AJ about his glowing tattoo. Magic? Curse? Look up possibilities when back at temple.

Kobolds be damned

//Webs are meant to slow or snare. Blood is meant to nourish. Eight legs are better than two // Dreams of spiders mean nothing to the protectors of the townsfolk. Each spinner produced its last silk.

Destroyers of Kobolds came across beasts large and small. Our merry band proved themselves merciful if the opportunity presented itself. Each creature of the world makes its own way. Who were they to inflict unfettered carnage upon the Fifteen Kingdoms? Who were they indeed?

Slayers of the undead was who they proved to be. Rotting corpses emerged from the wood. The shambled, they advanced, they were dashed to bits. Unfortunately we learned what fate had in store for the original company. A fate worse than undeath.

Our Apple-loving bunch went in search of the Kobolds. Each member of our crew took down Kobolds swiftly. Alarms could not be raised. Sleepy kobolds tell no tales, nor ring any bells. Fan took a few too many Kobold strikes. Spells were cast, axes were thrown, Staves were swung. Kobolds of the Clawtoes were no more. Kobolds of the Clawtoes were done for.

"Rotten Apples"

Ah, Redbridge. You can practically taste the scent of apples in the air this time of year. I’ve lived here thirty years, been Mayor for twenty, and every fall, the smell from the apple harvest covers everything else. You’d think people would get sick of it. Then again a few tumblers of Redbridge’s apple-Brandy, or a couple pints of cider (or both if its a good night) and you can’t help but appreciate it.

Maybe that’s why I retired here, years ago. Something about this town made me want to stay. Maybe it could have been any town. We were certainly tired of the constant traveling. Well, most of us were anyway.

Kristen asks me every now and then, “Rask, why here?” I always tell her its no good to be too far away from the best brandy in the Kingdoms. She also asks how I managed to get her to stay as well. To that one I just smile and say, “Just smart business between friends.” But she knows as well as I do. I mean, I bought out her half for the Sheep years ago. She could leave anytime she wanted.

Something about this town draws people here I think. Take the dwarf, Bemnar. This afternoon, I saw him standing near the inn, taking a bite out every apple in a barrel, “testing for freshness”. A brewer from the Dwarven stronghold miles and miles to the north. He’s come a long way from home just to brew beer. My sources tell me that he brews a sleeping drought for the halfling priestess. She was in the square this afternoon as well, over on the steps of the temple reading a book like usual. The two of them are friends with that Gnome naturist that’s always passing through town. And the half-elf, Jack. He was standing there eating pastries with one of Jin’s students. Word is that they have been talking about being adventurers. If they are brave enough, I wish them luck. I also hope they don’t get themselves killed.

I myself was standing on the porch of the Gilded Sheep, enjoying my pipe and a pint, when the boy came running into town. Folk tend to be more nosy than is good for them, gathering around the boy so as I couldn’t tell what the commotion was at first. Someone yelled out that he was hurt though and that definitely drew my attention.

By the time I was able to push my way through, the priestess, Xiri, was tending his wounds. I knew he was from one of the orchards to the east and that gash on his brow didn’t look good. He said it was kobolds and they had taken hostages. As it would happen, our newest would-be adventurers were all nearby. If there was a time to prove their worth, now would be it.

While they ran off to the orchard, I gathered the village council and waited, hoping they would return with both themselves and our people unscathed. For a moment, I feared the worst when only three of them came to the courthouse just over an hour later. Thankfully, the news wasn’t as bad as I though.

As they told it, they found half a dozen kobolds guarding four of our people. The gnome, Fan, caused a distraction and drew half of them away while the others came around from the other direction. Smart move. Looks like these kids DO have the makings of adventurers. Anyway, they were able to make short work of the kobolds, though Jin’s Student, Jalanna apparently got hit right in the face with a rotten apple from a sling!

Then the bad news. It seems most of the kobolds took a number of our people, mostly women and children, off into the Fangwood. Surprisingly, Bemnar, of all people, speaks Draconic and said the kobolds seemed to think they were getting “revenge” for something. After the fight, Fan and Jalanna went to follow the path while Bemnar, Jack, and Xiri escorted those they rescued back here to Redbridge.

I offered them gold to go after the kobolds, rescue our people, and hopefully uncover what has stirred up the little pests. As a last note though, I did feel it necessary to warn Bemnar – the adventurers that came through town last week who turned down my job offer also went into the Fangwood, talking of some “greater threat”. They never returned.